HP PROLIANT DL380 G5

Dear experts,

I have an HP proliant dl380 G5 server and there is used 4 slots in the SAS drive and another four is empty so I need to upgrade my server storage from 500GB to 2TB minimum so please advice the best affordable internal SAS drive or external Drives, This server has windows server folder redirection and has running out of the space .

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Following on the last comment: If you plan to use RAID (and you should, for sure), you should back up, create the RAID arrays, and then restore and move forward. You should also use hardware RAID (which likely means a new controller).

Get 2 x 2TB SAS drives. All SAS drives are enterprise class, which means they will work OK on that controller. Use your favorite search engine and just find a deal. "2TB SAS drive buy" should be good enough.

I would go for 4 x 900 GB 10K SAS drives if you have sufficient financial resources. This means that you have more spindles and more I/O. Since you're using it for folder redirection and likely will have a lot of small files. Raid 1+0 would be best for write transfer rate, but that depends on how many users you need to host. If it are just a few with a lot of MB's I would go for raid level 5. If you're hosting a lot of users with less MB's than raid level 1+0 might be the better choice. Never the less, I would always use a raid level which supports failure of (at least) one drive.

Thanks,
the users that I have are 50 users and their current files are 1.5TB, I have visited your link but the 900GB SAS DRIVE is very expensive so can you recommend to me another storage option that I can connect to the server so that my users gets more free space to store their redirected files.

Is it possible to backup the current files, reinstall the system and restore the files? If that is the case, you could add smaller disks or less expensive ones and make a new array having the benefit of all the spindles (= disks) and you might consider sata disks or smaller sas drives so you still will have sufficient performance. What is the amount of money you have in mind for the upgrade. When using sata disks you then might consider upgrading the cache memory for the raid controller, but that you could always do afterwards if you experience a (to big of a) performance degradation.

Another possible option might be considering an external NAS connected with iSCSI. We have good experience with the QNAP NAS servers. You can use SATA disks as well with those systems. Another advantage could be that you're independent to the server (hardware) and it is even possible to replicate to another NAS server. Although you might need an additional switch for the iSCSCI traffic and make it too pricey.

But with 50 users I think the first option, reinstall with 8 new disks, wouldn't be any problem concerning performance. We host 350+ users on a MSA 20 with SATA disks, attached to DL380 G5 which was intended for archive, and therefore not configured for optimal performance, used for the production without any issues. It hosts file shared, TS profiles and the archive it was initially intended for. We did however upgraded the RAID controller memory.
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What I need is to do changes that will not affect the server production because the server is a production server Reinstalling 8 new sas diks is too expensive and I don't know whether my server supports the Sata disks but the QNAP NAS server option seems to me gud idea but how can I make this NAS server as main connected storage that my users can store their files and which specific QNAP NAS server model can do this job.

What OS are you running on? With Win2k8 its quit easy. When using iSCSI you just add an iSCSI drive to the server which is quite the same as adding a local array disk to the server. After adding an iSCSI disk you do a rescan with disk management and you'll see it apperaing just the way a local disk would, so it's quit easy. With 2k3R2 it's quit good possible to, you just have to download the iSCSI component and install them. With 2K8 you just have to activate the iSCSI service and be on your way. You do need however Gigabit network connection!

The type of NAS I would reccomend is the SMB type. Depending on the drives you will use I would consider a 8x9 type so you can add more disks if needed later on or if you're within the budged all bays filled. I would recommend however to use 24/7 type drives. On the site you can find the supported drives per system and look on the internet for a vendor with the best price / conditions. But be sure the drives are listed in the supported harware compatability list.

Concerning the iSCSI connector, just go to Administrative Tools and select iSCSI Initator. You'll be asked if the nesesarry service should be started. Just accept (Yes) and there you go... Once you have your iSCSI target (would be the QNAP for instance) operational, select the Discovery tab within the iSCSI Initiator properties window and add the ip-address of the target by selecting "Add Portal..." under Target portals.

If this goes beyond the budget choose the 6 or 4 drive version, but if possibele (so you will be able to grow in a later stage) one with more slots, so you'll be able to expand your capacitie by simply adding additional drives.

Thanks for the advice.
my need is to get at least 2TB with QNAP that has iSCSI but my concern is the QNAP NAS will be connected to the network what will happen if the server cannot reach the NAS for some LAN network problems, in this case how it will affect the users those were using this NAS storage as primary.

may you recommend QNAP NAS that has 2TB disk and the price is below is $1000 or below becouse I don't need more storage.

I wouldn't recommend that ("QNAP NAS that has 2TB disk and the price is below is $1000 or below "), because of the amount of users. Perhaps you'll be better of with disks in your current server and some extra memory for the controller. Use your friend "The search engine on Internet" to find where you can get the best deal and add 4 disks with about the capacity of 750 GB/disk, then you'll have a total of 3 x 750 GB and one for the raidset. If your budget isn't any bigger, than you'll have to do it with those means and have to look for the best deal for that money. SAS will be to expensive, so you'll be forced using SATA drives. The site I mentioned before has 750 GB SATA disks for $ 350,- / pc. You will come to a total off $ 1400,-, but you can shop and see if you can find them a bit cheaper. If performance is not sufficient, you can add extra memory for your controller afterwards.

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The TS-459U-RP+ would suite your current needs. I would go for the Seagate Constellation ES ST1000NM0011, 1TB disks. The are (here) at the momet the same price as the Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3750330NS, 750GB, but have a 6 Gb/s interface and more important 64 Mb disk cache. So I would recommend the Seagate Constellation ES ST1000NM0011, 1TB. The reviews here are also really good!